For Owen Tippett, the 2025-26 season began in familiar territory in more ways than one. It started with a matchup against the team that drafted him, the Florida Panthers, with whom Tippett got just a taste of what it’s like to be on a great team before they traded him to acquire Claude Giroux in March 2022. But it also began quietly for the 26-year-old, which was quickly becoming a recurring situation.
In 22 career October games with the Orange and Black before 2025, Tippett managed just four goals. He didn’t have a chance to start strong in 2022, suffering an injury in the season-opener that sidelined him for two weeks. That didn’t stop him from posting a career-high 27 goals, nor did lighting the lamp twice in nine games to begin the next season prevent him from besting that total (albeit by just one goal). However, it amplified the frustration of a disappointing 2024-25 season, which was particularly poorly timed, given it was the first year of an eight-year extension that made him the team’s fourth-highest paid player.
Fortunately for the Flyers, Tippett is resembling the player envisioned when the extension was signed in January 2024. After being held off the scoresheet on night one, Tippett has tallied five goals in as many games since, and was a key driver of the team’s third win in four games on Monday night when he tallied twice against the Seattle Kraken. While it will take more than a short burst of offense to raise his ceiling — after all, Flyers fans have seen plenty of those before — having it happen this early provides hope that Tippett can beat the odds and take the next step.
What’s Working for Tippett
No matter how good or bad a player is, there’s always some uncertainty about how they will fit under a new head coach. While Tippett largely avoided the dog house under the notoriously prickly John Tortorella, he and everyone else had to prove they could fit under new head coach Rick Tocchet’s systems. And how the speedy, creative winger would fit into a more cycle-based system was no guarantee. Yet he’s not just scoring early on, but earning the approval of his head coach.
“We’ve talked about it,” said Tocchet when asked about Tippett playing with more physicality following Tuesday’s practice. “He doesn’t have to run around and hit people, but there’s times where, he had some body checks, last couple of games, where he went through people. He’s a big guy. When you do that, you’re gonna get room.”
“And obviously, through the neutral zone, his speed, for a big guy like that, it’s elite speed. And shots on net, he continued to put pucks on net.”
While Tippett hasn’t been a true empty-calorie goalscorer in previous seasons, his overall impact to begin this season has been better than ever. He’s finished with his head above water (over 50%) in expected goals for percentage in each of his first four seasons, but his current 60.88% mark is over six points higher than ever at 5-on-5. The results match the numbers and the eye test, with the Flyers yet to surrender a goal with him on the ice in 75:18 in 5-on-5 situations. Entering Wednesday, only eight players have been used more at 5-on-5 without being on the ice for a goal against, a list that includes big names such as Cale Makar, Kirill Marchenko, and Alex Ovechkin (all per Natural Stat Trick).
Owen Tippett, Philadelphia Flyers (Jess Starr/The Hockey Writers)
Additionally, Tippett is doing a better job at addressing one of his bigger weaknesses — hitting the net. In fact, this is an area of his game that actually regressed last season. But it’s on the upswing to start this season.
Shots on GoalShot AttemptsAttempts on Goal PercentageYear-Over-Year Change2022-2323141455.8%2023-2428954453.1%-2.7%2024-2518842444.3%-8.8%2025-26193455.9%+11.6%
“It’s situational,” Tippett said when asked about his increased shot volume on Monday. The second [goal’s] kind of a bit of a roller, I see guys going to the net, and just kind of throwing [the puck] there.”
He has actually managed to increase his shots on goal per 60 (from 9.09 to 10.36) despite his shot attempts per 60 slightly falling (from 20.21 to 19.12). Perhaps more importantly, his individual expected goals per 60 is back to around where it was in 2023-24 (a shade under one) after dropping to 0.72 last season, the lowest full-season mark of his career.
Still More to Prove
In such a small sample size of games, a few lucky bounces can easily distort things. And Tippett has gotten quite a few of those to start this season. In fact, only one of his five goals can be classified as purely a skill play. He benefited from a crazy rebound off the glass in the second game of the season to pot an easy goal, and a power-play marker at that. His goal last Saturday came from behind the goal line, banking his own rebound off the skate of Minnesota Wild goaltender Jesper Wallstedt. It was a skilled play, yes, but there was also some good fortune with it. And both of his goals on Monday came thanks to two different gaffes by Seattle Kraken netminder Joey Daccord — a giveaway right to Sean Couturier and a bad-angle, low short-side wrister that somehow squeaked through.
Remove even a couple of those breaks, and the narrative around Tippett is a bit different. He also doesn’t have an assist yet, and without improved playmaking, it’s hard to see him ever being much more than a 65-point player at best. In fact, only three players in the salary cap era have cracked 70 points without recording at least 25 assists (which is Tippett’s career-high, set in 2023-24).
Two of them, Zach Hyman and Chris Kreider, had 50-plus goal seasons, but have cracked 30 goals in just three of their other 17 NHL seasons (excluding the 56-game 2020-21 campaign). The other is Ovechkin, who is on a different planet than not just Tippett, but almost every other player in league history (and when it comes to purely goal-scoring, quite literally every other player). Sure enough, Tippett is rocking a sky-high 26.3% shooting percentage so far, well above his 9.9% career mark before this season. Some market correction is likely inevitable.
And there’s the always lingering question of consistency. Beginning on the right foot opens the door for a more complete season for Tippett, but it is far from guaranteed. After all, he’s had spurts like this before. He had six goals and 11 points in 13 games last December. As the team’s season started to collapse in March 2024, he did what he could to salvage things, scoring six goals and 13 points in 15 games. Maybe this is another identical flash, just at a different time in the season than we’ve seen before.
Determining Factors
There are two things I’ll be looking at to see how Tippett’s season turns out. The first is the Flyers’ power play, which has had plenty of early hiccups and, even after a two-goal performance on Monday, still sits near the bottom of the league at 15.8%. Two seasons ago, Tippett had 39 5-on-5 points, the same amount as Sebastian Aho and Matthew Tkachuk and one fewer than Makar. There’s a lot more than an above-average or even functional power play separating those two players. But having one would help close the gap.
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Another consideration is how his usage evolves throughout the season. There’s definitely an argument to be made that he’s best suited for a role lower in the lineup. But even if he’s listed on the third line on a given night, Tocchet should still find ways to get him minutes, especially when he’s on a hot streak. Tippett started the season on the third line, but a strong performance on Monday with the equally hot Sean Couturier and no longer slumping Travis Konecny could have him ticketed for a bigger role in the near future.
“I think Tip[pett] helps [Couturier and Konecny] helps those guys a lot. But yeah, I thought that was a good line for us. They’re connected, right? I think if you watch, they’re always kind of in the same area, and that’s what usually good lines do,” Tocchet said on Monday.
Maybe that’s all these first two weeks are for Tippett — one of a few inevitable hot streaks from a talented player who always leaves you wanting more. His stellar skating and wicked wrister are arguably the two most important traits for a high-end scoring winger to have. Tippett possesses both, but that doesn’t mean he’s that kind of player. It also doesn’t mean, even with most of his natural developmental growth in the rearview mirror, that he can’t become at least a bit closer to that level.
“It makes it easier for that confidence to kind of stick around,” Tippett confirmed Monday when asked about his strong start being rewarded with a barrage of goals. “But at the same point, you can’t get too focused on that, and you’ll still got to work on our goal here.”
